Los Angeles Lakers: Remembering the dark days before the NBA Finals

The Los Angeles Lakers are the most prestigious team in the NBA but the most recent seasons have been rough.

April 12, 2013. Golden State Warriors vs. Los Angeles Lakers. Kobe Bryant had 32 points on 42.9% shooting. He knocked down half of his eight three-point attempts. Vintage Kobe was in full swing at 34 years old. He was averaging 29 points per game in his prior 23 games played.

Then he collapsed.

Kobe, being the champion that he is, stood up, hobbled to the free-throw line, and drained both attempts. He was removed from the game. He tore his Achilles. After a miraculous effort to even lead the Lakers in the NBA Playoffs, Bryant could not play when it really mattered. The Lakers were swept.

The was the last we would see prime, vintage Kobe Bryant until the last game of his career — a game that included a terrible Lakers’ supporting cast that won just 17 games. It was the last time that we would see the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Playoffs for the rest of the decade.

The dark days had begun.

The Los Angeles Lakers posted six consecutive losing seasons. That six-year playoff drought was not only the longest drought in franchise history but produced more non-playoff years than the history of the franchise prior (five).

Now, over seven years removed from that dreadful injury, over two years since LeBron James took his talents to Tinseltown, over one year since Anthony Davis was acquired in a blockbuster trade and nearly nine months after Kobe Bryant tragically died in a helicopter accident, the Los Angeles Lakers are one game away from being NBA Champions.

It is only fitting that the Lakers will don the Black Mamba jerseys in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. This one is for Kobe.

The dark days of the Los Angeles Lakers

Laker fans have been through a lot. Season after season of mediocrity. Fans had to deal with storylines such as a D’Angelo Russell-Nick Young feud instead of watching winning basketball. We had to watch the NBA Lottery instead of the NBA Playoffs.

The Lakers threw out lineups consisting of guys that typically fill the backend of a rotation. On March 14, 2014, the Lakers lost 85-119 to the San Antonio Spurs; the starting lineup for LA that night consisted of Jodie Meeks, Ryan Kelley, Wesley Johnson, Kendall Marshal and Pau Gasol.

It was bad.

Bad management got in the way of winning. Many teams went on spending sprees when the NBA salary cap spiked in 2016, including the Lakers. Then general manager Mitch Kupchak signed Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov to four-year deals worth a combined $136 million.

Neither player is still in the league.

The young stars developed slowly, and for an entire year, the most interesting thing about the Los Angeles Lakers was the starting point guard’s dad. Gone were NBA Championships, in were Summer League Championships.

But can you blame us for cheering? That is all we had.

Any Laker fan under 15 years old likely doesn’t remember much about even the Kobe-Gasol title-winning teams. Any fan under 25 doesn’t remember much about the three-peat Lakers. The memory that reigns supreme is the six-year playoff drought.

As we did in the latest episode of the Lake Show Life Podcast, we urge every Laker fan to remember the past six years. The good moments, the bad moments and the moments that made all of us cry. The moments that connect us. The moments that make us all fans.

Because

if

when the Los Angeles Lakers get it done, and LeBron James hoists the Larry O’Brien Trophy, screaming the words “Kobe, this is for you!” then the dark days will officially be a thing of the past. Let’s. Go. Lakers.